Operators have canceled many of
Michelle Shocked's U.S. tour dates after word spread that the folk
singer who once self-identified as bisexual went on an anti-gay rant.
Numerous media sources have reported on
the incident, which occurred Sunday at a jazz club in San Francisco.
Shocked reportedly told the audience at
Yoshi's that she lived “in fear that the world will be destroyed if
gays are allowed to marry.”
“You can go on Twitter and say,
'Michelle Shocked says God hates fags,'” Shocked said.
Shocked tweeted on Sunday, “What does
everybody at @yoshi's want to hear tonight? Truth? Or reality?”
followed about an hour later with, “Truth is leading to painful
confrontation.”
A Change.org
petition calling on venues to cancel Shocked's upcoming shows quickly
racked up more than 3,000 signatures.
“Freedom of speech and artistic
expression are critically important, but this isn't free speech,”
the petition states. “This is hate speech.”
And by Tuesday, many venues had
responded by canceling appearances, including the Telluride Bluegrass
Festival, four venues in California, two in Colorado, and one each in
Oregon, Washington and Illinois.